Disney-Kim
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 1999
- Messages
- 4,275
We got back on Sat from a week at the BCV. Our vacation was great. Perfect weather....very cool in the first half of the week and HOT the latter. not one drop of rain. low humidity. very nice. It was my DH and I along with my Sis and her BF (who just bought DVC) 
It was our 11th time at WDW and their 3rd.
BCV review:
this was our first stay at our home resort. We still love VWL the most and will stay there again next year. The VWL are much more secluded and we liked the shady trees more. Just the ambience there in general. less busy, cozy, relaxed.
checkin: started off bad, ended good. We checked in about 6pm on Sat. There was a line..not bad. We got a nice girl...no "welcome home" though. She says that both of our rooms are on the 4th floor..UGH....thanks to the DIS I knew this meant "smoking". I immediately said no way. I had non-smoking on both my ressies for medical reasons and smoking rooms were completely unacceptable. I told her that I booked these rooms 11 months ago and full or not....the room controller should have been able to get us non. I stood my ground but was still friendly. The girl was helpful after offering to move and desmoke the room...I kept sending her back with "no". She finally came back with new Non-smoking rooms for us. at first she was not going to give my other party Non because their ressie didn't say for medical...I complained that was an oversight on the person who took my ressie...s/b on both. She was able to fix things and get us non/smok rooms on the same floor even. which was GREAT. I am sorry...but this was a big deal to me that they could not even give us Non-smoking even though I booked 11 months ahead. this goes to the old argument...what good does 11 months do for us if the person who checked in earlier gets the room. I was frustrated that the room assigner couldn't figure out that "smoking" would be unacceptable for someone who had Non for medical on their ressie. this just irked me...I wasn't being picky about location, floor, etc. but something that affects my health. in the end they fixed it...but still disappointing. my opinion here.
we were in 243 and my sis was in 240.
Room 243 - we had a nice view of the woods and BC and FRance. We could NOT see any Illuminations. but no biggie. nice quiet room and view. The room was in great shape. Nothing really looked warn to me. I was surprised at the large size of the toilet/shower room. Its bigger than BWV/VWL but the vanity area seemed smaller. The lack of drawers didn't bother me. We used the small shelf to put small things on. The carpet, furniture, bedding were all in really good condition. I was really happy with the room. The only thing was that every day we had cig ashes all over our patio...
. You would think the person smoking above would figure out that their ashes were going somewhere....
but...the bed was terrible. It was the hardest most uncomfortable bed I have had in any hotel in years. My Sis complained too. They were only about 5" thick...and worn. We all didn't sleep as well and woke up with sore backs/shoulders. I sure hope they get those replaced soon because they are very low quality and really need to be replaced with updated pillowtop mattresses. This was a constant complaint every day for us as we were so stiff. and as always...the sheets were rough/itchy....but I have come to expect this at WDW. Yes, I am picky...I bring my own pillow cases from home.
but I can say that I don't remember the beds being that bad the last 2 years....this time was awful.
oh...lastly...the thermostat...this was an issue. the "trick" I read online didn't work. and the a/c went off at night...luckily it was cool at night and wasn't that bad...but I would not stay there in Summer. This is a big enough issue that I would not stay there again over that. The A/C worked great but once off for hours the room got uncomfortable.
Room 240 (my Sis) - they had an Epcot view with a ROAD view. They didn't really care for the road view but after the big check in ordeal were happy with the room. They said their room was in good condition and it was quiet with the door closed. I would not be happy with this room for the view...the otherwise they were really happy with the location.
Buses: they came frequently and we only waited more than 10 mins one time for a MK bus. I liked that the Villas are close to the bus stop.
Parks: Busier than I have seen in the last 3 May visits. travel is up. There were a ton of middle school field trips too at the MK/MGM. We didn't wait longer than 10 minutes for anything by using FP and going early. We don't do extra early/late hour but follow the day after plan. worked well. Everest was a hit with our family. We did FP and then left the park. Soarin was the only ride with long long waits...80 mins and up. We are experienced visitors and don't wait in lines for any ride anymore...we FP or skip it. But I could see a novice visitor being overwhelmed by the crowds we saw and the HEAT.
Food: ate at all the usual favorites or ours and had great meals except for The Yachtsman Steakhouse. poor service, overcooked steaks, all just bad. our worst meal. I felt that Le Cellier was a far superior steak house and their service was ten fold. we won't be back.
A surprise was the Luau....we really liked it. the food was good/decent in our opinion and the show was entertaining. We spent over $400 in Maui to see their famous luau and hated it. It was a waste...the food unedible and the show was boring. Maui didn't even have a live band. Yet...WDW Luau had a live band and a fantastic show (started slow though). We loved the fire guy.
We had a nice time.
We used the DDE again this trip and it saved us over $140 for the week. We were pretty happy about that since we saved about $100 last year too.
It was a another fun trip that just went by too fast. We have now stayed at BWV, VWL, and the BCV....our favorite by far is the VWL.
and just like the others our trip just flew by and we were back at work today.
We used mileage to fly First class for both flights and that was just fantastic too. Just a great trip. Thats all I can think of right now. feel free to ask any questions.
It was our 11th time at WDW and their 3rd.
BCV review:
this was our first stay at our home resort. We still love VWL the most and will stay there again next year. The VWL are much more secluded and we liked the shady trees more. Just the ambience there in general. less busy, cozy, relaxed.
checkin: started off bad, ended good. We checked in about 6pm on Sat. There was a line..not bad. We got a nice girl...no "welcome home" though. She says that both of our rooms are on the 4th floor..UGH....thanks to the DIS I knew this meant "smoking". I immediately said no way. I had non-smoking on both my ressies for medical reasons and smoking rooms were completely unacceptable. I told her that I booked these rooms 11 months ago and full or not....the room controller should have been able to get us non. I stood my ground but was still friendly. The girl was helpful after offering to move and desmoke the room...I kept sending her back with "no". She finally came back with new Non-smoking rooms for us. at first she was not going to give my other party Non because their ressie didn't say for medical...I complained that was an oversight on the person who took my ressie...s/b on both. She was able to fix things and get us non/smok rooms on the same floor even. which was GREAT. I am sorry...but this was a big deal to me that they could not even give us Non-smoking even though I booked 11 months ahead. this goes to the old argument...what good does 11 months do for us if the person who checked in earlier gets the room. I was frustrated that the room assigner couldn't figure out that "smoking" would be unacceptable for someone who had Non for medical on their ressie. this just irked me...I wasn't being picky about location, floor, etc. but something that affects my health. in the end they fixed it...but still disappointing. my opinion here.
we were in 243 and my sis was in 240.
Room 243 - we had a nice view of the woods and BC and FRance. We could NOT see any Illuminations. but no biggie. nice quiet room and view. The room was in great shape. Nothing really looked warn to me. I was surprised at the large size of the toilet/shower room. Its bigger than BWV/VWL but the vanity area seemed smaller. The lack of drawers didn't bother me. We used the small shelf to put small things on. The carpet, furniture, bedding were all in really good condition. I was really happy with the room. The only thing was that every day we had cig ashes all over our patio...
. You would think the person smoking above would figure out that their ashes were going somewhere....but...the bed was terrible. It was the hardest most uncomfortable bed I have had in any hotel in years. My Sis complained too. They were only about 5" thick...and worn. We all didn't sleep as well and woke up with sore backs/shoulders. I sure hope they get those replaced soon because they are very low quality and really need to be replaced with updated pillowtop mattresses. This was a constant complaint every day for us as we were so stiff. and as always...the sheets were rough/itchy....but I have come to expect this at WDW. Yes, I am picky...I bring my own pillow cases from home.
but I can say that I don't remember the beds being that bad the last 2 years....this time was awful.oh...lastly...the thermostat...this was an issue. the "trick" I read online didn't work. and the a/c went off at night...luckily it was cool at night and wasn't that bad...but I would not stay there in Summer. This is a big enough issue that I would not stay there again over that. The A/C worked great but once off for hours the room got uncomfortable.
Room 240 (my Sis) - they had an Epcot view with a ROAD view. They didn't really care for the road view but after the big check in ordeal were happy with the room. They said their room was in good condition and it was quiet with the door closed. I would not be happy with this room for the view...the otherwise they were really happy with the location.
Buses: they came frequently and we only waited more than 10 mins one time for a MK bus. I liked that the Villas are close to the bus stop.
Parks: Busier than I have seen in the last 3 May visits. travel is up. There were a ton of middle school field trips too at the MK/MGM. We didn't wait longer than 10 minutes for anything by using FP and going early. We don't do extra early/late hour but follow the day after plan. worked well. Everest was a hit with our family. We did FP and then left the park. Soarin was the only ride with long long waits...80 mins and up. We are experienced visitors and don't wait in lines for any ride anymore...we FP or skip it. But I could see a novice visitor being overwhelmed by the crowds we saw and the HEAT.
Food: ate at all the usual favorites or ours and had great meals except for The Yachtsman Steakhouse. poor service, overcooked steaks, all just bad. our worst meal. I felt that Le Cellier was a far superior steak house and their service was ten fold. we won't be back.
A surprise was the Luau....we really liked it. the food was good/decent in our opinion and the show was entertaining. We spent over $400 in Maui to see their famous luau and hated it. It was a waste...the food unedible and the show was boring. Maui didn't even have a live band. Yet...WDW Luau had a live band and a fantastic show (started slow though). We loved the fire guy.
We had a nice time.
We used the DDE again this trip and it saved us over $140 for the week. We were pretty happy about that since we saved about $100 last year too.
It was a another fun trip that just went by too fast. We have now stayed at BWV, VWL, and the BCV....our favorite by far is the VWL.
and just like the others our trip just flew by and we were back at work today.
We used mileage to fly First class for both flights and that was just fantastic too. Just a great trip. Thats all I can think of right now. feel free to ask any questions.
